Monday, February 29, 2016

IT News Head Lines (techPowerUp) 29/02/2016

(PR) MSI Announces B150M Gaming Pro Motherboard
MSI,
world leading in gaming hardware design, is heartened to announce a new
M-ATX GAMING motherboard, the B150M GAMING PRO. This new Micro-ATX
motherboard is based on the Intel B150 chipset supporting 6th Gen Intel
Core processors for LGA1151, and is designed for gamers looking for a
small gaming PC while getting the best gaming features &
performance. DDR4 Boost technology is available, providing maximum
performance and stability while also offering improved memory
compatibility. Audio Boost and GAMING LAN ensure you have upper hand on
your enemies on the battlefield, ready to finish on top. But there's
more... For a limited time, with the new B150M GAMING PRO you get the
great and nimble MSI DS B1 GAMING mouse for free.

By
fully isolating the memory circuitry from other components, DDR4 Boost
ensures the purest possible memory signal for maximum performance and
stability. Get ready to crush your enemies on the battlefield with MSI
GAMING LAN, featuring carefully selected components to ensure the best
online gaming experience without lag. With optimized traffic
prioritization and low latency, MSI GAMING LAN Manager automatically
classifies and prioritizes the latency-sensitive applications for online
games. The LED illuminated LAN connector features 15KV anti-surge
protection for safety.

(PR) Samsung Introduces Industry's First Universal Flash Storage for Mobile Devices
Samsung
Electronics, the world leader in advanced memory technology, announced
that it is now mass producing the industry's first 256-gigabyte (GB)
embedded memory based on the Universal Flash Storage (UFS) 2.0 standard,
for next-generation high-end mobile devices. The newly introduced
embedded memory features outstanding performance for mobile devices that
exceeds that of a typical SATA-based SSD for PCs.

"By
providing high-density UFS memory that is nearly twice as fast as a
SATA SSD for PCs, we will contribute to a paradigm shift within the
mobile data storage market," said Joo Sun Choi, Executive Vice
President, Memory Sales and Marketing, Samsung Electronics. "We are
determined to push the competitive edge in premium storage line-ups -
OEM NVMe SSDs, external SSDs, and UFS - by moving aggressively to
enhance performance and capacity in all three markets."

NVIDIA to Unveil "Pascal" at the 2016 Computex
NVIDIA
is reportedly planning to unveil its next-generation GeForce GTX
"Pascal" GPUs at the 2016 Computex show, in Taipei, scheduled for
early-June. This unveiling doesn't necessarily mean market availability.
SweClockers reports that problems, particularly related to NVIDIA
supplier TSMC getting its 16 nm FinFET node up to speed, especially
following the recent Taiwan earthquake,
could delay market available to late- or even post-Summer. It remains
to be seen if the "Pascal" architecture debuts as an all-mighty "GP100"
chip, or a smaller, performance-segment "GP104" that will be peddled as
enthusiast-segment over being faster than the current big-chip, the
GM200. NVIDIA's next generation GeForce nomenclature will also be
particularly interesting to look out for, given that the current lineup
is already at the GTX 900 series.

Windows Store Games won't have VSync, SLI/CrossFire, Fullscreen or Modding
Microsoft
is looking to cut itself a lion's share of the game digital downloads
pie, by making Microsoft Store (which comes included with Windows 10),
sell contemporary AAA games, such as "Rise of the Tomb Raider." Unlike
other cross-DRM transactions (eg: purchasing a Steam DLC game through
UPlay store), Microsoft Store will serve both sales and DRM roles. You
must be thinking "it's a free world, always room for more competition,"
right? Think again. There are several pitfallls to buying "Rise of the
Tomb Raider" or any other AAA game through Microsoft Store, as users on
Reddit found out.

To begin with,
games purchased through Windows Store are built on Microsoft's Universal
Apps Platform, and not the conventional desktop-based executable. The
game is essentially a "modern UI" app, and not a conventional Windows
application. This has great limitations - no NVIDIA SLI or AMD CrossFire
support; no real fullscreen mode (just borderless windowed mode or
pseudo-fullscreen); and V-sync being always-on. Other major downsides of
UAP apps include no support for modding, and mouse macros. What's more,
since UAP apps don't have *.exe extensions, you can't add them to
Steam, and so no Steam Controller support. The Store in itself doesn't
have a good refund policy along the lines of Steam and Origin limited
full-refund policies; and you'll never be able to play your games on
Windows versions older than Windows 10.

(PR) ASUS Announces ROG Sica White Gaming Mouse
ASUS
Republic of Gamers (ROG) today announced the latest ROG Sica gaming
mouse with a new Glacier White finish and upgraded Omron switches. ROG
Sica is an ambidextrous gaming mouse optimized for MOBA gaming for
gamers of all grip types. ROG Sica features a simple independent
two-button and single clickable scroll-wheel setup. An improved
exclusive easy-swap switch socket design lets users customize click
resistance with Omron switches that offer 20-million-click durability.
The left and right mouse buttons are separated from the main mouse body
to reduce travel distance to ensure increased button tactility and
responsiveness.

ROG Sica has a
1000Hz polling rate and packs an optical sensor that tracks at up to
5000 DPI, and at speeds of up to 130 inches per second and 30g
acceleration to give users swift, pixel-precise mouse tracking. ROG
Sica's Glacier White body features a glowing ROG logo and intricate
Mayan-stenciled side panels to give it presence. It has a gold-plated
USB 2.0 connector, and low-friction Teflon feet.

(PR) Transcend Introduces 1TB M.2 Solid State Drive for Ultra-thin Computing Systems
Transcend
Information, Inc., a leading manufacturer of storage and multimedia
products, is proud to announce the availability of 1 Terabyte M.2 Solid
State Drive coming with 2280 form factor for ultra-thin computing
devices, such as Ultrabook, tablet computers and laptops. Transcend's
MTS800 M.2 SSD is equipped with high-quality MLC NAND flash to remain
its excellent stability, and is exclusively built in protective
technologies, such as Global Wear-leveling, Advanced Garbage Collection,
and Device Sleep mode.

By
utilizing the next-generation SATA III 6Gb/s interface, Transcend's
MTS800 is capable of delivering sequential read/write performance of up
to 560MB/s and 460MB/s respectively. The newly released spacious 1TB
supplies the MTS800's capacity to its full scale ranging from 32GB to
1TB, which is determined to satisfy the needs of various market fields
and individual consumer with personal budget plans.

(PR) Alphacool Announces Eiszapfen Quick-connect Couplings
Alphacool's
new quick connect couplers with the name "Eiszapfen" are the next block
in the "Eis" series. High quality and impressive features makes any
watercooling system back to a piece of high-quality and practical. A
quick coupling is used everywhere where expandability, flexibility and
cleanness play an important role. These compact couplings have a 1/4
"thread on both sides with which they are compatible with all standard
connections.

By pulling down the
outer ring these couplings can be disconnected. Both sides close
immediately completely tight so that no water can escape. Thanks to the
special N.D.S.L. Technology (no drip, no splash, no leak) a leak, drip
or splash out of the water on opening the lock is excluded. By
assembling again, both sides must click into each other audibly and shut
themselves tightly by a double O-ring, which is simply compressed when
plugged together. Likewise, the mechanism was designed for durability to
ensure a secure connection even years.

AMD Releases Radeon Software Crimson Edition 16.2 Beta Drivers
AMD
released its monthly major update to Radeon Software Crimson Edition,
its software suite that provides drivers and system software for AMD
Radeon discrete and integrated graphics processors. Version 16.2 Beta
comes with game-specific optimization for "Ashes of the Singularity"
Benchmark 2.0, including support for features such as DirectX 12
multi-GPU and asynchronous compute shaders. Performance improvements are
added for "Rise of the Tomb Raider," and CrossFire profiles are added
for "Tom Clancy's The Division" and XCOM 2. A number of bugs related to
"Rise of the Tomb Raider" and "Fallout 4" were fixed.